Emoji gender equality is coming!
If you cast your mind back to May, you might remember that a team of Google employees created a new set of emojis designed to better represent women in the workplace and promote gender equality.
The 13 emojis weren't simply female versions of male emojis that could already be found on your keyboard. Instead, they showed women in a diverse range of careers, from mechanic to teacher to software engineer, chef to lab technician to a Bowie-inspired rockstar.
Google staffers Rachel Been, Nicole Bleuel, Augustin Fonts and Mark Davis submitted their designs to the Unicode Consortium in Silicon Valley, who supervise the creation of new emojis and - drum roll - it's just been announced that 11 of the designs have been approved! Cue plenty of raised hands emojis from all involved.
In another step forward for emoji equality, you'll also soon be able to choose male or female versions for 33 pre-existing emoji.
‘For millions of people around the world, emoji are an important means of communication – and a strong representation of culture. Yet the roles of people in the workplace cannot be communicated with emoji. This is especially true for women,’ the team explained in a statement earlier this year.
‘Given that women are more likely to use emoji at work while communicating with peers (CNBC), it’s not surprising that women and men are increasingly vocal about the need for more accurate female representation in emoji professions.’
The proposed emojis depicted ‘a wide range of professions for women and men, with a goal of highlighting the diversity of women's careers and empowering girls everywhere.’
As things currently stand, emoji representation for women is pretty poor – unless you’re a professional princess, bride or flamenco dancer – and the Google team were inspired by an opinion piece published in The New York Times, titled ‘Emoji Feminism.’
‘Where, I wanted to know, was the fierce professor working her way to tenure? Where was the lawyer? The accountant? The surgeon? […] How was there space for both a bento box and a single fried coconut shrimp, and yet women were restricted to a smattering of tired, beauty-centric roles?’ author Amy Butcher wrote.
A launch date is yet to be announced, but these career-orientated emojis could hopefully arrive on your smartphone keyboard by the end of the year.
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